Customer Reviews

JVC TD-W354BK Dual Cassette Deck

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this model after owning an older receiver by JVC. It is loaded with features; high speed dub, continuous play, auto stop, auto reverse, Dolby B and C, and my favorite, the JVC receiver remote works this as well, even though it is years older. I am very pleased with the quality of JVC products. I own the receiver, cassette deck, and 5 disc carousel. They are all very reliable, as they have never needed even the smallest repair. Even long after the warranty ran out, they work perfectly.

Sound quality is very good on this deck. I have cassette tapes that hiss or drag in lesser quality decks, but will play beautifully in this. I am impressed with the quality of cassettes recorded with this deck as well. I record cd's onto cassette for use in the car, so this gets a real workout. All the tapes recorded sound as good as the ones that come pre-recorded.

I am also pleased with the controls on this. Everything is easy to read and operate. No confusing buttons or knobs. Even the back of the deck where you hook up the wires is self explanatory. They are marked so that you never have to open the owners manual.

In overview, this is the best cassette deck I've owned yet. I've owned Teac, Pioneer and Sony, and from now on I will stick with JVC products. I can't say enough about this deck. It is reliable, good sounding, inexpensive, and easy to operate. This is the best value out there.

I too was very impressed with this cassette deck from JVC. Mine cost $250(Can), and I needed the features that this deck had to offer. The sound was very impressive, and once you know what you were doing, the deck was simple to operate. There was even a Mic input (a feature which I thought had all but disappeared from cassette decks). The unit had a nice solid feel to it, and the instructions were easy to follow. Too make a long story short, the unit performed flawlessly for just over three months, then my problems started. (and just as soon as the warranty expired of course).

I noticed that some of my tapes started dragging. I thought it might be a tension problem with my cassettes, but those tapes would play fine on my car deck and my cheap Panasonic boom box downstairs. Turns out the problem was the drive belts had started slipping (as mentioned by another reviewer). I thought OK, I'll take it in to get repaired. Well, that wasn't the only problem with this machine. After sitting in the service centre for two weeks, the tech called me to say that the power supply was shorting out, and he also said I had a defective speed governor (which is somehow connected to the pitch control), and that's what was causing speed and tension problems with my tapes. The cost of repairs? $200. I said forget about it and brought the deck back home. I now have a completely useless component staring at me on my stereo system... For the most part, I've phased out my cassette collection, but I still make recordings every now and then, and still have a few pre-recorded tapes that I haven't been able to find on CD yet. So, I basically spent $250 on a lemon. (my JVC VCR lasted only three months too)

For the record, I used to think of highly of not only JVC, but Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba as well. Not anymore. JVC (like most others), has outsourced most of its suppliers to Mexico, China and Malaysia, which produces absolute junk as far as I'm concerned. Truthfully, if I were the president or CEO of any these companies, I would be ashamed to manufacture, market and sell this garbage. But since ethics aren't part of any business anymore, and the latter is just a quick trip to the bank for the execs, then WHO cares? It's throw-away from the top down and the bottom up with rare exception. I give up. Doesn't ANYONE make quality electronics anymore? Mostly all consumer electronics these days are nothing more than fancy toys that WILL break. It's almost guaranteed. Thank-you so much JVC. You have lost my trust, and I will never again purchase another piece of garbage from your once mighty company.

I was quite impressed with this unit until I tried to play a fourth tape. That's right, got to play three tapes for my 160 bucks.

Apparently the drive belts have started slipping on both wells. Usually starts a couple of minutes into a tape and usually clears up right at the end. In between is barely recognizeable as music. Cleaned the heads, retensioned the tapes on other decks - no go. All the tapes that won't play correctly on the JVC play just fine on two other older, cheaper decks.

This is a high quality unit at a moderate price. It has a solid feel to it; the controls operate surely and quietly; the tape transport is quiet; the sound quality rivals that of CDs. I cannot distinguish the sound of recordings made with it from that of the original source. Features such as AMS work perfectly. Even now there is need for a fine tape deck; this is one.

It came in 4 days!! Just exactly what I wanted ++. The playover feature plays both tapes. The controls are all up front and easy to use. The manual is easy to understand. And the price was great. I thought I'd have a hard time finding a dual deck cassette, but no problem!!
Charlie Lawrence

I haven't had a single problem with this thing yet and I've run well over 250 cassette tapes through it (side A and B) without any problems. If you keep the heads clean and keep it unplugged when you won't be using it for a while I think you will be in great shape.

These decks are awesome. I use two of them to make custom tapes and blend tracks together through a mixer. The rare pitch control feature is not available on many decks and allows speeding up and slowing down tracks. Of course the auto-reverse and different dolby noise reductions allow you to listen hiss-free and also clean up any recordings. Also has a microphone input. This deck is a gem for a cassette enthusiast or anyone having a cassette collection.

Below is the feature set:

*auto-reverse record/play (deck B) and auto-reverse play (deck A)
*Compu Calibration
*Dolby B & C
*Dolby HX Pro (deck B)
*full-logic controls
*normal/high-speed dubbing
*variable pitch control
*relay play
*multi music scan
*microphone mix input
*headphone output
*JVC Enhanced CompuLink
*Dynamics Detection Recording Processor
*frequency response (±3dB) 30-16,000 Hz -- metal tape
*signal-to-noise ratio 78 dB (Dolby C)
*wow and flutter 0.08%
*17-3/16"W x 5-7/16"H x 14-1/2"D

I have had this cassette deck for 2 years now, and it has perfomed well for me. It was a wedding gift from my brother, and it has worked well with my surround sound JVC reciever. This does have the compulink feature which combines the remote funcion of the reciever with the cassetter deck, which is nice to play with. The push buttons and continuous play features are all there, and the Dolby mix buttons are also there for B and C. I think this ran around 200 dollars when he got it for us, but I believe now around 100 bucks is a fair going rate, and well worth every penny of it. If you look on auction sites, may be able to even get it for cheaper. This would be a steel for anything less. Should provide me many more years of listening stabilty for this dead format of music. RIP Cassettes, for you were the format of my generation.

This deck produces great sound on old tapes. Easy to use and to hook up.

I am a retired Band Director and have gotton 4 of these over the years. They are really good. I bouht the first one so I could plug a mic with 1/4 into it. This ine listed here is my own , not one for a school.